Sussan Lee: What the Fifth Circuit Court Hearing on DACA Could Mean for the Future of Our Democracy

By Sussan Lee
For over a decade, hundreds of thousands of young immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have been under the crosshairs of conservative officials hellbent on destroying a program that is not only legally sound and morally just, but also supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans.
Efforts to dismantle DACA are now playing out at the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, where Attorneys General from Republican-led states, spearheaded by Texas and its Attorney General Ken Paxton, once again argued that hundreds of thousands of people who are part of the very fabric of this country and our communities should be deported.
The Fifth Circuit is considering three key questions about the DACA program. First on standing, whether the states who brought the lawsuits have incurred actual costs as a result of the program. Those states that brought this case, including Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, argue that they have incurred undue financial costs as a result of DACA, despite exhaustive evidence proving the contrary: that it is precisely because of DACA that so many of our communities are able to thrive. Second on the merits of the policy itself, whether the Biden administration, exercising long upheld discretion afforded the executive branch on immigration, had the proper authority to promulgate a formal rule to protect DACA. And lastly on scope, if the trial court, which blocked new applicants nationwide, should have limited its ruling to the seven original states who sued.
Protecting DACA is the obvious moral decision, preventing hundreds of thousands of people from being banished from the only homes they have known. Protecting DACA is also the obvious pragmatic decision, as supporting DACA recipients, DACA-eligible individuals, and undocumented community members at large, directly supports the entire U.S. economy by ensuring people who are already established, active members of our communities have the stability we all deserve to build lives, homes and futures here. Ending DACA would result in as many as 540,000 community members being denied the freedom to work and make a living, costing the U.S. economy up to $648 billion in economic losses, and state and local governments as much as $150 billion in future revenue losses.
Put simply: it would be morally cruel and hugely costly for the 5th Circuit Court to rule against a program that helps keep families together and provides opportunities for young people to go to school, start their careers, and build their lives and futures here. Frankly, the United States cannot afford to lose an entire population of individuals who are stewards of our neighborhoods, who help keep small businesses running, and bring their rich perspective to our communities.
But the urgency surrounding this legal battle isn’t just about ensuring the 5th Circuit Court upholds a legally sound, morally just, and beneficial program like DACA. It’s also a litmus test for whether parts of our country’s judicial system will continue to align itself with the political attacks of the anti-immigrant fringe, despite clear facts and precedent to the contrary as well as the clear will of the majority of Americans to the contrary.
The years-long push to end DACA has been, and continues to be, a calculated and politically motivated assault orchestrated by Former President Trump, his Attorneys General allies, and the courts he has stacked in his favor to carry out his draconian plans to upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of immigrants no matter the consequences.
Ending DACA through the courts is a crucial piece in Trump’s agenda to ensure hundreds of thousands of people are left vulnerable to the mass deportation efforts he has promised to carry out if re-elected.
Unfortunately, the 5th Circuit has already shown a track record of defending Trump’s extreme, anti-immigrant agenda when it ruled against DACA back in 2022 and could do so again. And, if a negative 5th Circuit decision is appealed and ends up back at the U.S. Supreme Court –in front of three Trump-appointed justices– the program’s potential end would unfold under whoever becomes our next president.
Trump’s efforts to go after our rights and freedoms through a judicial system he has rigged in his favor is a threat to us all, regardless of our immigration status. Whether it was the fall of Roe v. Wade, the attacks we are continuing to see with DACA, baseless lawsuits to stop student loan forgiveness, ongoing legal challenges to stop the Biden Administration’s recently-announced Parole process to keep families together from ever getting off the ground, assaults on LGBTQ rights, Trump is using the federal courts at all levels to exert his authoritarian agenda.
That is not a future any of us should be okay with.
So what exactly does our country stand to lose if DACA ends?
A lot.
Every single one of us must demand the 5th Circuit judges rule on the side of justice. And if they decide to go against the will of the majority of Americans who support DACA, and against the legal standards that prove DACA is right, then we must all be ready to unequivocally defend our immigrant family and friends whose lives will be on the frontlines of Trump’s attacks.
Sussan Lee began her career as an immigration attorney at the MinKwon Center for Community Action. She then worked to mitigate the insidious intersection of our broken immigration and criminal legal systems at NYC public defender offices. Prior to joining United We Dream Action as its Managing Director, she was the Senior Federal Policy Advisor at the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.